


Vol. III - I'm Yours

by RishiDiams



Series: Love Songs [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-16 20:51:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3502370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RishiDiams/pseuds/RishiDiams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an unexpected stay in an alien jail, Rose learns that the Doctor has not been idle while she sleeps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "normal speech"  
>  _*telepathy*_
> 
>  
> 
> I won't hesitate no more, no more  
> It cannot wait, I'm yours  
> Well open up your mind and see like me  
> Look into your heart and you'll find love love love love  
> \- "I'm Yours," Jason Mraz

The Rhinarian guard surveyed her with distaste, or it could have been his enormous pouty lips that made him look like he was displeased. She wanted to fidget, pace, twiddle her thumbs, something,  _anything_ , but the Doctor had suggested she aim for ice queen rather than impatient Human. How long had she been waiting here anyway? The Doctor had promised her he would come for her as soon as he could, but it had to have been several hours since she'd last spoken to him. Worst of all, the depths of the Rhinarian dungeon she was currently stranded in were impervious to telepathic communications, so she couldn't even tell if he was still on the surface of the planet.   
  
Then... it was just the tiniest tickle in the back of her mind, but it was something and when the door to the dungeon opened a moment later her mind was flooded with the warmth of the Doctor, seeking her out, checking on her health, her well-being.  _*I'm fine,*_ she replied.  _*Can you get me out of --*_    
  
One word floated back to her,  _*Chocolate.*_    
  
Confused, she jumped when the door was slammed shut once again, severing the connection, and a new Rhinarian descended the steps into the holding area where she stood. "Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London, United Kingdom, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy?"   
  
_Ice queen._ "Yes? And you are?"   
  
"I am Stt Maso Zema of Rhina Zone Two, Rhina, Rhina System, Loari Galaxy."   
  
Rose debated whether to curtsy but the ice queen won out. She extended her hand and then glared at the Rhinarian until he finally he raised his own hand and wiggled her fingers ineffectually. Stifling the urge to giggle she nodded regally and put her hand back down at her side. "Have you come to release me?"   
  
"Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London --"   
  
"I asked if you had come to release me. I did not ask for yet another recitation of my name." He gaped at her, though it was kind of hard to tell with those pouty lips.   
  
"Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the --" he started again, but Rose cut him off.   
  
"Dame Rose will do and it will save us quite a bit of time." Not knowing what had come over her, she slipped into the royal 'we', "And our time is very precious." A part of her wanted to add, "And we are not amused," but she felt that might be pushing it.   
  
He seemed to cough, though she couldn't be sure what that noise was, but he started yet again. "Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London, United Kingdom, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy," this time he got it all out in a rush and continued without giving Rose a chance to stop him again. "The Doctor, Time Lord of the House of Lungbarrow, southern mountain range, Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous, has made certain assertions in his demand for your release. I have come to verify those assertions."   
  
He hesitated and Rose jumped at the opportunity to regain the upper hand. She was still confused what assertions the Doctor could have made. "Yes? So, get on with it."   
  
"There is to be a word, Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London, United --"   
  
Suddenly it made sense. "Chocolate."   
  
Hours later, she would still be wondering how it was possible for a being to trip on his own feet while standing perfectly still, but the Rhinarian gave a tiny hop and righted himself. "Thank you, Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London, United Kingdom, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy."   
  
He hesitated again, but this time seemed to be even more uncertain than before.   
  
"Is that all?"   
  
"No, Dame --" he caught the look in her eyes and correctly interpreted it, speeding through the remainder of her name even faster than before, "Rose-Marion-Tyler-of-the-Powell-Estates,London,United-Kingdom,Earth,Sol-System,Milky-Way-Galaxy. There is to be a sign."   
  
The ice queen persona slipped, "A sign? What d'you mean a sign, then?"   
  
Without another word, the Rhinarian stepped forward and slipped what passed for his thumb under the sleeve of her t-shirt. He pressed gently and then immediately stepped back.   
  
A chill started at Rose's elbow and climbed up to her shoulder, "Ow!" Raising the sleeve she stared in wonder as a beautiful swirling tattoo began to take shape. She didn't even notice the Rhinarians scrambling around her, murmuring apologies and urgently gesturing her towards the door.   
  
Circles within spirals within circles, some of them so small they appeared to be just dots. The Doctor filled her mind again, reeking of chagrin, but still concerned for her.  _*Move, Rose.*_    
  
His voice drawing her from the still expanding tattoo on her arm, Rose looked up and saw that the door to the dungeon was open and the two Rhinarians were both locked in deep bows. Rushing blindly up the stairs, she bathed in the feeling of having the Doctor back in her mind and allowed the strength of their bond to lead her unerringly back to him.   
  
_*Ice queen,*_ he reminded her at the last second, stopping her before she was about to throw herself into his arms.   
  
Rose slowed and stopped at the Doctor's side with what little grace she could muster in such a short distance. "Doctor." She nodded haughtily at him.   
  
He nodded back at her and gently lowered the sleeve of her shirt, his hand lingering over the part of the tattoo that was still exposed. Then, he cocked his eyebrow ever so slightly to his left before she had a chance to question him about it.   
  
A Rhinarian emerged from the shadows in the direction the Doctor had indicated. "As you can see, The Doctor, Time Lord of the House of Lungbarrow, southern mountain range, Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous, Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London, United Kingdom, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy has been returned to you unharmed."   
  
"Thank you, Naa Errom Umi of Rhina Zone One, Rhina, Rhina System, Loari Galaxy. If there will be nothing further?" The Rhinarian seemed to retreat as the Doctor took a step forward, his hand still holding Rose's arm.   
  
They walked, neither hurrying nor tarrying to the TARDIS. When the doors closed behind them, he enveloped her in his arms and breathed deeply of her scent. "I'm so sorry you were down there for so long. As you probably guessed, the Rhinarians are sticklers for formalities. It took me forever to find the right authority, and don't even get me started on the paperwork." Rose giggled and he smiled, "Are you really all right?"   
  
She knew he only asked because it made her more comfortable than him rooting around in her mind for the information, but in this case, she also knew he already had the answer and was only looking for reassurance. "Yeah, I'm fine. Really."   
  
"You're brilliant, you are, Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates --" She glared at him and he giggled. "'We are not amused,' really, you should have said that, it would have been perfect."   
  
"You could hear me?"   
  
"Yeah, one way telepathic wall. I could hear you, but you couldn't sense me unless the door was open." His hands shifted at her waist and she could tell he still needed reassurance.   
  
"I'm fine, Doctor, really."   
  
"Really? You're not just - oh, all right. Enough of that. I'll get us out of here." He turned and headed up the ramp to the control panel.   
  
"And don't think I'm gonna forget about this," Rose said as she lifted her shirt sleeve again, but she revealed only her bare arm. "Hey! Where's it gone, then?"   
  
The Doctor tugged at his ear - guiltily, Rose thought - but continued pushing buttons and spinning devices she still didn't know the names of, until the familiar grinding of the TARDIS taking off filled the chamber. He was a second too late to prevent her from pressing her thumb against her arm.   
  
Rose gasped as the coldness settled into her arm and she watched again as the tattoo drew itself on her skin. "It's beautiful."   
  
"It should be, took me hours to draw it."   
  
He curled into a defensive position as she raised her arm and smacked him. "Hey, watch it!"   
  
"What is it?"   
  
"It's Gallifreyan. I put a psychic sight shield over it, not that there's anyone in the universe except me who can still read it." Rose watched as he ran the backs of his fingers down the tattoo almost reverentially.   
  
"Yeah, but what's it say?"   
  
His hand cupped her cheek and turned her face up to him, his lips already lowering to cover hers in a tender kiss. Rose moaned but stopped him from deepening the kiss. "Don't try to change the subject. What's it say?"   
  
"It's a pedigree. Both of our pedigrees, actually." He lifted her arm and pointed out a single large swirl with lots of smaller swirls and connecting lines inside of it. "This is me."   
  
"All of that says, 'The Doctor'?"   
  
"Yeah - no, not really. It's more complicated than that... doesn't say that at all, actually."   
  
She laughed. "Then what does it say?"   
  
"You couldn't even pronounce the first syllable."   
  
Rose saw the pain in his eyes intensify for a moment. It had been constant when his eyes were blue but had lessened now that they were brown, especially since he'd bonded them. For this to affect him so powerfully, she had a strong suspicion what the image represented. "Is that your name? Your real name?"   
  
"Have I ever told you that you're Brilliant, Rose Tyler? Brilliant with a capital B."   
  
"Yeah, you may have." She smiled up at him and watched as some of his pain abated, "So, if that one's you, then this one's me?" Situated below the one that was his name, the swirl was smaller and less complicated.   
  
"Right. Dame Rose Marion Tyler of the Powell Estates, London, United Kingdom, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, daughter of Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Prentice and Peter Alan Tyler."   
  
"All that then?"   
  
He shrugged. "Pedigree," he said simply. "Of course, I could have mucked it all up. It could be 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers' for all I know."   
  
But he was joking, trying to relieve some of the tension that was building between them. She could tell that he knew exactly what it said. "All right. Pedigree. So what does it mean?"   
  
"Doesn't matter," he muttered, trying to kiss her again.   
  
But Rose saw that it did matter, at least to him. She dodged the kiss, her face ending up centimetres from his. "I'm the one wearing this thing. I think deserve an answer, yeah?"   
  
He sighed, "Yes, you do." But he didn't explain and her suspicions began to grow.   
  
"Doctor? It can't be just a pedigree, you don't draw something like this on someone if it doesn't mean something."   
  
He cocked an eyebrow at her as if to say, 'oh, yeah?' but again she felt that wave of chagrin wash over her through the bond. Taking that as an invitation she prodded his mind. In it, she saw a vision of him as he drew the symbols on her arm while she slept, was conscious of the painstaking care he'd put in to get it exactly right.   
  
"Your walls are up," she said when she realized that he wouldn't let her go any farther.   
  
"Rose --"   
  
"I need to know. You said it yourself, I deserve to know."   
  
As always, the feeling of his walls falling, even just the few of them he dropped this time, was enough to send a shiver through her body. It was just so much information at once, so much pain. But this time, also joy. A vision came to the fore, many people milling around a couple who stood with their hands joined by a length of cloth. The cloth separated their hands by only inches, but neither of them touched as the whole assembly watched on. The woman's right arm was bare and on it was a tattoo very similar to Rose's.   
  
A man to the left of the couple spoke. The two of them each took a second to whisper something in the other's ear then as one they moved together, their lips meeting in a restrained, formal kiss that hinted at so much more.   
  
Rose pulled herself back from the image and the Doctor's mind. She waited while he rebuilt the walls, assimilating what she had just seen.   
  
"So, that --"   
  
"Gallifreyan wedding. The last few minutes of one, at least."   
  
"And this," she gestured to her arm, "means that we're married?"   
  
"No! No, no, no, no, no!"   
  
"But that's a part of it, yeah?" She sorted through the memories she'd received while his walls were down. "It's the second step, after the bonding. It means..."   
  
"It means that you're mine. And I'm yours. We're each other's, really."   
  
"Okay."   
  
"Okay?"   
  
"Yeah. Okay."   
  
"Just 'okay'?"   
  
"Is that a problem?"   
  
"No mad Rose? No smacking? No 'I can't believe you did this without asking'?"   
  
"No. Just okay."   
  
Obviously off balance, he put his arms around her again, "Okay it is, then."   
  
* * *   
  
_Two weeks earlier_    
  
The tattoo had begun the first night they'd returned from the parallel universe in the hours after Rose had cried herself to sleep over the loss of both her father (for the third time) and her former boyfriend. His fingers had created the pattern without him even thinking about it, tracing her name and lineage in Gallifreyan while she slept. Adding himself had occurred mostly because he got bored easily while waiting for her to wake. It had just been his finger upon her skin the first few times, the actual ink had occurred several days later.   
  
Each time his finger would follow the pattern it became a little more right to him, a little more real. The time he'd caught himself doing it while she was awake and standing beside him had made the Doctor realize he wanted it to be permanent. He'd given up a regeneration for this woman and had told her things that he hadn't shared with another living soul. He'd been healed by her and was amazed over and over again by her selflessness and love for an ancient battered alien. They were already bonded for life in one way, but this second way would be recognized by outsiders and that had unexpectedly become very important to him.   
  
By the time he leaned over her in the bed they shared holding a pot of ink in one hand and a brush in the other, he had already traced it on her skin so many times he felt there should have been an outline there for him to follow. Then he'd hidden the tattoo, mostly to keep it secret from Rose until he had a chance to talk to her about it.   
  
Of course, the next time they'd stepped out of the TARDIS together it was into London, 1953.   
  
"Found another one, sir."   
  
"Oh, er - good man, Crabtree. Here we are, Doctor..."   
  
_No._  He dropped the files he was holding.  _That skirt. Those shoes. Not Rose. Please let it not be Rose._  He slowly approached the blanket-covered figure.   
  
"Take a good look. See what you can deduce."   
  
The policeman pulled the blanket off of her head and the Doctor wanted to scream. He probed at their bond and got nothing.  _Nothing,_ which should have been impossible given that her body was right here. All neural function was gone.   
  
"Rose."   
  
"Do you know her?"   
  
"Know her? She..."  _She's everything. And I never told her._  His hand moved to the tattoo so recently finished, so lovingly crafted, but he ghosted over it, not willing to accidentally touch it and have it spring to life in this moment where it would make things so horribly, horrifically real. "They did what?"   
  
The detective inspector hadn't realized he'd been paying attention. "I'm sorry?"   
  
The Doctor forced himself to remain calm. D.I. Bishop was not the enemy, nor was he a bumbling cop. He was simply operating within the boundaries that had been imposed on him and he had no way of knowing exactly what he was now dealing with. "They left her where?"   
  
"Just... in the street."   
  
"In the street. They left her in the street. They took her face and just chucked her out and left her in the street. And as a result, that makes things... simple. Very, very simple. Do you know why?" He finally tore his gaze away from Rose's face and, taking his glasses off, turned to the two men.   
  
"No..."   
  
"Because NOW, Detective Inspector Bishop," he shouted, "there is no power on this Earth that can stop me. Come on!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did [this bit](http://rishidiams.tumblr.com/post/115214586472/rose-with-bonding-tattoo-img-source) of fan art of Rose with her Bonding Tattoo for the Tumblr April Fool's Bodyswap.


	2. Chapter 2

They walked together through streets filled with people celebrating the crowning of their new monarch. Rose watched the jubilant people coming together as a community and a nation, but her thoughts were focused on the Time Lord who walked beside her.   
  
His hand was wrapped tightly around hers, his thoughts through the bond tumultuous. There was quite a bit of darkness there and equal parts fear and relief. Rose knew him well enough to understand that he felt responsible for what had happened to her. She had already tried to talk to him about it, but her words had not helped. Time would be the only thing that would soothe that particular ache.   
  
What mattered was that in the end the Doctor had triumphed, the Wire had been trapped and all of the stolen faces had been restored. They would be going off together in the TARDIS after one more goodbye.   
  
They walked up to Tommy and talked briefly until their attention was caught by Eddie Connolly leaving his home with only one suitcase to his name.   
  
Rose bumped Tommy's shoulder. "Tommy, go after him."   
  
"What for?"   
  
"He's your dad."   
  
"He's an idiot."   
  
"'Course he is. Like I said, he's your dad. But you're clever. Clever enough to save the world so don't stop there. Go on!" Smiling, Rose nudged Tommy once more and was relieved when he ran off to join his father. She leaned closer to the Doctor when Tommy took his father's suitcase as they continued to walk down the street side by side. The Doctor handed her a glass of orange juice and they chinked their glasses together.   
  
As they drank Rose almost didn't notice the Doctor glance over her shoulder at something behind her, but when he put his glass down on the table she wasn't surprised to hear him say, "Meet you back at the TARDIS? There's something I need to do."   
  
There was no question he would always be more proficient at controlling the bond than she was, because he immediately attempted to calm her sudden concern for him, but she was receiving nothing unusual from him. "It's nothing, Rose. I just saw someone I wanted to talk to, is all. I'll only be a moment." He dropped his outermost wall and she felt the truth of his statement. It felt different than he usually did when he was trying to protect her from something.   
  
Nodding, Rose placed her empty glass on the table next to his. "I'll be right here."   
  
He placed a small kiss on the top of her head then walked off. Rose waited a few minutes before following him to the alley he had ducked down, only to round the corner and stop. The Doctor's back was to her, and he was squatting before a child of no more than six or seven, deeply engaged in conversation. She couldn't hear what they were saying from where she stood, but she had only been there for a minute when a small shaggy blond head peered around the Doctor at her. The Doctor turned slightly to look over his shoulder then stood up.   
  
She started forward and was able to hear the child say, "This is the last time I will appear to you like this."   
  
"I understand," the Doctor replied.   
  
Rose was only a few steps away when the child stepped forward and embraced the Doctor, the top of his head - for, despite the shaggy hair, he was definitely male - barely reaching the Doctor's navel. "Thanks again, Dad."   
  
Her feet stopped on their own and a cold lump settled in her stomach. The child looked at her again, his large brown eyes just as expressive as his father's. He took a step backwards, touched a button on a wristband he wore and disappeared. A mixture of sadness and glee flowed over the bond to her and Rose realized that it had been muted while he talked to the child. His child.   
  
 _*Yes_ ,* the Doctor replied as he moved to embrace her, his lips already seeking the center of her forehead. * _I haven't seen him in a long time.*_    
  
 _*Why not?*_    
  
 _*I thought, with the destruction of Gallifrey, that I had eliminated his timeline.*_    
  
 _*Eliminated - you mean he was on Gallifrey when it --*_ She scanned through the memories he had once shared with her for the correct word, * _\-- when it was time locked?*_    
  
 _*No, I have never had a blond son. I mean that I assumed I had destroyed his future mother._   _Apparently, I was wrong.*_  He combed through her hair with his fingers and Rose realized with a sinking feeling that no child of hers would have such pure blond hair.   
  
"Oh," she said. "Is he a full Time Lord, then?"   
  
Finally picking up on her emotions through the bond, the Doctor leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. "TNA will dominate any other genetic code. There's no way to tell without doing a full genetic work-up."   
  
"I see."   
  
"I don't know anything about him, Rose, not his name or his mother's, not a birthday or even what he looks like as an adult. He has never appeared to me as anything other than a young child. If you must know, the fact that he appears to me at all has always terrified me. The questions he asks are so simple, there's no reason if I am still alive when he needs these answers that he should have to seek me out in his relative past to get them. The idea that I'm not there for him and his mother is almost too much to bear."   
  
Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer to her. "I'm being selfish. I'm sorry. It's just that I know I'm not gonna live forever and the thought of you moving on... well, it's almost too much for me to bear, too."   
  
"I am yours, Rose Marion Tyler, for as long as you will have me. He's my future, but you are my present and I will not jeopardize what we have for what may be."   
  
* * *   
  
It was the perfect moment to tell Rose that he'd marked her body with his name, that he'd claimed her without her permission. Rose was concerned what the boy meant for her future, but the Doctor had told her the truth; a dozen Time Ladies could walk into this 1953 London alley, he would still leave with Rose Tyler on his arm. But, coward him, he let the moment pass, too focused on the joy that his son lived.   
  
There had never been a question as to the boy's identity; the recognition between them was instantaneous each time across many of the Doctor's incarnations. But this was the first time he had appeared since the Time War. For so long the Doctor had been the last of the Time Lords, the last scion of Gallifrey. Now he knew for certain that he would not be the last. His son lived!   
  
A few feet away, unnoticed by either the Doctor or Rose, the blond boy stood hidden by the perception filter he had activated. He watched the hugging couple, though it was obvious by the expression on his face that their intimacy made him uncomfortable. After a minute, he raised his wrist and pushed a few buttons, quietly teleporting away.   
  
"Come on, let's get back to the TARDIS."   
  
The time never seemed to be right to tell her about the tattoo as they darted across the universe. And before he knew it, two weeks had passed and he was forced to use it to claim Rose as his mate before a Rhinarian magistrate who would only release his prisoner to her next of kin.   
  
By that time, a total of six weeks had passed since Rose had invited him to share her dreams, but so much had changed between them. Now that she knew about the tattoo, he would temporarily remove the sight shield whenever they were inside the TARDIS. The Doctor could sense her pride over the bond whenever she caught him looking at it. It was a fair match for his own. That this young, beautiful Human would want him still managed to stun him if he gave it enough thought.   
  
They'd only visited Jackie once in those six weeks, after Mickey had stayed behind in Pete's world, and had spent the whole visit tip-toeing around the details of their new relationship. The Doctor was certain that Jackie liked this incarnation of him much more than the last, but he didn't think that would protect him if she were to take exception to the fact that he was in a relationship with her daughter. She would have to be told about the tattoo, and better sooner rather than later.   
  
Or eventually, he thought as he remembered that last time he'd received a Tyler slap. Eventually was good. Smoothing his fingers over the tattoo, he and Rose both watched as it faded from sight. He pressed the button that would materialize the TARDIS as Rose put on her jacket.   
  
Stepping outside, they both looked up at their ship. "I dunno what's wrong with her, she's sort of... queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't want to land."   
  
Rose looked from him to the ship. "Oh, if you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else..."   
  
They both burst out laughing at the absurdity of her suggestion.   
  
"I think," he looked around, "we've landed inside a cupboard. Here we go!"   
  
Little did they realize that would be the last time they'd see their magnificent ship.   
  
"But I need my ship. It's all I've got. Literally the only thing."   
  
But Zach wasn't about to change his mind. "Doctor, we've only got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source, and that's it. No diversions, no distractions - no exceptions. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that... is the end of it."   
  
Zach left and Ida approached the Doctor. "I'll uh - put you on the duty roster. We need someone in the laundry." She followed Zach from the room.   
  
The Doctor walked around the computer and settled against the control panel next to Rose. "I've trapped you here."   
  
"No. Don't worry about me." The base shook around them. Rose looked up through the window. "Okay, we're on a planet that shouldn't exist, under a black hole... and no way out." He was watching her carefully, assessing her emotions through the bond and therefore knew what she would say before she spoke again. "Yeah, I've changed my mind. Start worrying about me."   
  
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.   
  
 _"Entering night shift._ _Your chosen track for transition is Ravel's Bolero."_    
  
The door to the control room opened again and Ida Scott looked at them. "Well," she said, "I guess we'd better assign you to quarters."   
  
And, with that, their situation became so much more real.   
  
She walked up to the computer and scrolled through a few menus. "Now, normally I wouldn't pry, but are the two of you together or will you be needing separate rooms?"   
  
"Together," Rose replied, slipping her hot hand into his cooler one for the first time since they'd landed on this impossible planet. He squeezed her back, giving as well as receiving strength from the simple connection.   
  
"Good for you, the double rooms are so much nicer." She punched something into the computer. "Rose - I'm sorry, what did you say your last name was?"   
  
"Tyler, Rose Tyler."   
  
A few more keystrokes then Ida turned to the Doctor. "And you, Doctor?"   
  
"Oh, no," he smiled. "It's just 'The Doctor.'"   
  
"You can't be just 'The Doctor'. That's not a name, it's a title."   
  
"That's me, though."   
  
Her eyes narrowed slightly and she turned back to the keyboard. "Right then. We'll put you in 14. If you'll just follow me, Rose, Dr. Tyler."   
  
Rose's eyes, dancing with amusement, met his as Ida began to walk away. He imagined he now knew how she'd felt when they'd seen alternate Pete and Jackie's Rose, the tiny Yorkshire Terrier. "Um, Ida, it's just 'The Doctor,' no last name."   
  
"Well, the computer won't accept that and I can't assign you to a room without a name." She opened Door 1 and gestured them through it. "I know it's a little old-fashioned, but it's either that or make something up. You said you're together, so I don't understand what the problem is."   
  
What was the problem, exactly? They were bonded and she carried his betrothal promise on her arm. So why did the idea of taking Rose's name bother him so much? Ida guided them through the corridors of the base, opening and closing doors as she took them closer and closer to the habitation quarters they would be sharing for the foreseeable future.   
  
There was no need to cautiously inspect Rose's emotions regarding this matter through the bond, she was making herself perfectly well known. She didn't understand what the problem was either. "You're right. Of course," he said. "There's no problem."   
  
Rose exhaled beside him and he had a brief moment to wonder if he'd just royally stuck his foot in it before Ida stopped beside another closed door. "And here's you: 14. Take a few minutes, get settled in, and then meet us in the canteen for dinner."   
  
They stood silent as Ida walked away. Finally, Rose opened the door. "Well, let's see what we've got."   
  
"It's not too bad," she said after a minute. "Cozy."   
  
The room was small compared to what they were accustomed to on the TARDIS, which, honestly, was to be expected. The bed was full-size - much less than their usual king - there was a desk built into the wall, and some drawers for them to put their things... that is, of course, if they had things.   
  
The Doctor just looked at the room, numb, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He'd done this, stranded her here on the edge of madness, spoken of his ship as though it was the only thing in the universe that mattered to him, balked at the idea of taking her name, even if only as an appeasement measure to a computer system which would allow them to be here, sharing this modest space.   
  
He was being too silent, too caught up in his own thoughts; he could sense her growing concern for him even before she turned. "Doctor, are you gonna be okay?"   
  
"Of course I will be."   
  
"But, Doctor, the TARDIS --"   
  
"I know, Rose." He took a deep breath and let go of one of the many secrets he was holding from her. "And I haven't mentioned it because I didn't want to get your hopes up, but I can still sense her. She's out there, somewhere. I just have to find her."   
  
She wrapped her arms around him. "We just have to find her," she corrected gently.   
  
He brought his own arms up to surround her.   
  
 _*We're together. We're safe. It's just a different kind of adventure, yeah?*_    
  
The feeling of her in his arms and in his mind soothed him.  _*Thank you,*_  he thought, infusing those two little words with everything he still couldn't say to her. It was inadequate, but it was the best he could do.   
  
Rose stood up on her toes and kissed him softly.  _*I love you, too.*_  "Come on," she said a moment later, "let's get some dinner, I'm starved."


	3. Chapter 3

The lights flickered in the canteen.   
  
"Zach, have we got a problem?" Ida said into her wrist comm.   
  
"No more than usual," he returned. "Got the Scarlet System burning up, it might be worth a look."   
  
Ida looked at the Doctor and Rose. "You might want to see this. Moment in history." She pulled a lever which opened the overhead shutters, revealing the black hole overhead and flooding the room with soft red light. She pointed. "There. On the edge."   
  
Rose looked out the dome at the stream of red light spiraling into the black hole, but in the back of her mind she could hear the Doctor's recitation of the species that had once lived there, the civilizations that had thrived and fallen; the sheer volume of his dry knowledge overtaking Ida's brief but passionate speech.   
  
Ida moved to pull the lever again but the Doctor stopped her. "Er, no, could you leave it open?"   
  
Rose looked at him, becoming more concerned for him with each moment.   
  
"Just for a bit," he added. "I won't go mad, I promise."   
  
"How would you know?"   
  
He only smiled crookedly in response, but Ida allowed it, barking orders to Jefferson and Scooti, eventually leaving the two of them alone.   
  
"I've seen films and things, yeah - they say black holes are like gateways to another universe."   
  
"Not that one. It just eats."   
  
"Long way from home..."   
  
The Doctor glanced at her then back out the dome. "Go that way," he pointed with a pen, "turn right, keep going for um... about five hundred years... then you'll reach the Earth."   
  
Rose took her phone out of her pocket and pressed a few buttons. "No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could... what would I tell her...? Can you build another TARDIS?"   
  
She laughed half-heartedly, already knowing it was impossible at least in her lifetime.   
  
"They were grown, not built. And with my home planet gone... we're kind of stuck."   
  
He was blocking her, the bond muted, but she still felt a twinge of pain from him at the mention of Gallifrey. It didn't bear thinking how strongly that thought had hurt him if even the tiniest bit had broken through his defenses to reach her.   
  
"Well, it could be worse," she joked, trying to keep her tone light. "This lot said they'd give us a lift."   
  
"And then what?" he asked, leveling his gaze at her.   
  
"I dunno... find a planet... get a job... live a life, same as the rest of the universe."   
  
"Pfft... I'd have to settle down. Get a house or something, a proper house with... with... with... with DOORS and things. Carpets! Me! Living in a house!"   
  
Rose laughed at how absurd he made the notion sound, but her laughter was also partly in relief that he finally seemed to have thrown off some of the sense of doom he'd been carrying around with him since they'd found out the TARDIS had been lost.   
  
"Now that... that is terrifying."   
  
"You'd have to get a mortgage," she teased in a sing-song voice.   
  
He stared at her, horrified, "No."   
  
"Oh, yes."   
  
"I am dying. That's it. I am dying, it is all over."   
  
"What about me," she laughed. "I'd have to get one, too. I dunno, it could... could be the same one, we could both..."   
  
The Doctor looked at her and she caught his gaze, her words nervously falling apart at the intense look in his eyes. After everything they'd shared, he was still uncertain, not about his feelings for her but about the permanence she would be willing to offer him.   
  
 _*Hey,_   _we'll sort something out.*_    
  
 _*I'm sorry, Rose. I am so, so sorry.*_  "I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home."   
  
"Everyone leaves home in the end," she said.   
  
"Not to end up stuck here."   
  
Her relief was palpable. This wasn't just the Time Lord fearing that without his marvelous time traveling machine he'd soon reach the limit of his Human bond-mate's constancy. This was the guilt of a man, afraid he'd bollocksed things up so badly that she'd pack up and leave. Where he expected her to go, being that they were trapped here for the foreseeable future, she had no idea, but he expected her to leave him.   
  
"Yeah," she said, trying to sound casual and not at all like she'd just completely figured him out, "but stuck with you - that's not so bad."   
  
She could feel his eyes on her. "Yeah?" he asked uncertainly.   
  
"Yes." Rose turned towards him, infusing the single word with every bit of sincerity she could muster.   
  
He smiled that crooked grin again.   
  
 _*I love you, you daft alien._   _I don't know how many times I need to say it for you to start believing it, but until you tell me to stop I'm gonna keep on saying it.*_    
  
His grin spread wider, but the moment was broken by Rose's phone ringing. She answered it more out of reflex than anything else, completely forgetting that they were far out of range.   
  
~He is awake.~  
  
Shocked, Rose flung the phone to the floor.   
  
"What was that?"   
  
She shivered. "Nothing. It was nothing."   
  
He was around the table and pulling her up into his arms before she'd finished speaking. "Rose? Are you all right?"   
  
She looked up at him, shivering again despite the comfort of his embrace.   
  
Zach's voice came over the comm announcing fifteen minutes until lights out. The sheer normalcy of it settled her, and Rose quickly convinced herself that she'd overreacted to the creepy voice.   
  
The Doctor's arm settled across her shoulders. "Come on."   
  
Soon they were back in their tiny room each watching the other carefully for signs of distress.   
  
"Are you sure you're all right?"   
  
Rose laughed nervously. "Yeah. It's been a long day, you know? For both of us. Things will look better tomorrow." She waited for his nod of agreement before stripping down to her knickers, carefully laying out her pink shirt, jacket, and jeans on the room's sole chair. "Ida said they could use someone in the laundry. I guess that's me, then; you'd go mental. Besides, I'm sure there's much more important things you could be doing." She walked to the small sink and looked at herself in the mirror above it. "We'll have to do something for extra clothes, though. We'll need something to wear on laundry day."   
  
She turned at the familiar whistle of the Doctor's sonic to see him holding up her t-shirt and waving the blue light at it.   
  
"What are you doing?"   
  
"Laundry." He flipped off the sonic and put the shirt down, bending to pick up her jacket next. The sound of the sonic filled the room again.   
  
Rose picked up the shirt and brought it to her nose as the Doctor picked up her jeans next and cleaned them as well. The shirt didn't smell clothesline fresh, but it was clean.   
  
"Knickers," he said, turning to her with his hand outstretched. This was a switch, him hardly speaking at all. He was still upset, that much was painfully obvious.   
  
"What?" Rose asked, more in an effort to coax his gob into motion than to have him clarify. The sound of his voice was a comfort in and of itself, it meant that his brilliant Time Lord brain was working, that he was puzzling things out.   
  
"I can clean your knickers, too. You don't really need them for bed - unless you want to wear them, of course."   
  
"No, it's okay." Rose stripped them off and handed them over, noting how his attention seemed more focused on her nakedness than on the task he'd assigned himself. "Handy," she said when he finished and placed the knickers on the chair as well. "I didn't know your sonic could do that."   
  
"There are a lot of things it can do."   
  
He stripped down to his pants and silently cleaned each piece of his suit the same way he had done her clothes. Rose sat down on the bed and watched raptly as he finished his trousers and folded them neatly on top of the rest of his suit.   
  
Then, without removing his pants, the Doctor crawled into bed beside her. Rose felt guilty for the tiny rush of resentment she felt. Six weeks they'd been together and she'd never once seen him naked, except in their dreams, where he had admitted his form was a fabrication.   
  
"I'm sorry, Rose," he said as he pulled her close so that her head was pillowed on his chest.   
  
Resentment. The bond. She was going to have to start exercising some restraint with her emotions. "Stop saying that. It's not your fault." She sat up a bit to look at him.   
  
"It is, though. I'm the designated driver. It's my responsibility to listen to my ship --"   
  
He stopped as Rose's lips covered his.  _*Quiet, Time Lord.*_    
  
 _*Rose --*_    
  
 _*No more guilt for you. Not over this, not over anything else. I won't allow it.*_    
  
 _*But --*_    
  
 _*I love you, and you know there's no place in the universe I'd rather be than in your arms no matter where we are.*_    
  
He began kissing her back, and Rose felt herself tumbling into the rose dream before she even noticed his fingers on her temple. He was waiting for her when her eyes opened, wearing only his pinstriped trousers and a pale blue Oxford that was open at the neck.   
  
The Doctor stretched his hand out to her and Rose took it, moving with him when he began to walk. He didn't seem to be in a hurry so she matched her pace to his, contenting herself with the fact that no matter what, they still had this beautiful connection binding them together. They walked in silence so absolute that it was almost reverent, each focused on their own thoughts.   
  
After a while, he turned to her, opening his arms to invite her in and Rose stepped into his embrace. The Doctor held her that way for a long time until finally his hands came up to cup her face and he lifted her lips to his. He kissed her as he had only ever done when he'd first shared her dreams of them together immediately following New Earth, sweetly and with restraint, refusing to deepen the kiss even when Rose teased his lips with the tip of her tongue.   
  
Then his hands began to move, each touch hesitant and unsure as though they'd taken a step six weeks backward, and he was still uncertain of his welcome. Despite their continued silence, Rose understood that this was something that would be on his terms. So much had been taken away from him today that he needed this reaffirmation of their bond and her acceptance of him as her lover.   
  
She moved with him, enjoying the quiet exploration as his fingers tip-toed down her arms then moved to her waist where they slipped underneath the hem of her shirt. He could have had both of them naked in an instant, but instead it was a slow uncovering as he guided the shirt up, pausing for Rose to lift her arms before pulling it over her head. The snap of her jeans was next and then he was steadying her as she stepped out of them. His hands returned to her sides, his thumbs brushing the undersides of her breasts.   
  
Rose took one of her fingers and touched the hollow of his neck, right above the top button of his shirt. As she drew her finger down his chest she popped each button open with her mind so that his shirt flew open with no resistance. He was gasping by the time her finger reached the clasp of his trousers, which she opened with her hands, guiding the trousers off of his legs in the same way he had done for her.   
  
Skin to skin they stood still for a moment, and then Rose moved with him when he guided her down to the ground. Struck with inspiration, she made her tattoo appear with a thought, the dark ink shimmering against her skin as it came to life.   
  
The Doctor inhaled sharply, his eyes brimming with unshed tears.   
  
"I'm yours and you're mine," she reminded him gently, breaking their silence. "Forever."   
  
His head dropped as he completed the motion that brought them together. He made love to her slowly, turning all of his energies on her until she exploded around him. Only then did he focus on himself, straining against her as he came the same way he had spent every minute they'd been together in this dream, in silence.   
  
* * *   
  
"If you talk to Rose... just tell her... Tell her I..." He paused. "Oh, she knows."   
  
It was the kiss that filled his mind as he uncoupled the final hook suspending him above the pit. Not anything else they had shared in the two years he had known her, not even memories of their bodies entwined together surrounded by rose petals. Just the kiss she had placed on his helmet before he'd boarded the capsule with Ida.


	4. Chapter 4

Rose closed her eyes as the rocket shook violently around her. She braced herself for impact, waiting for the inevitable moment when they entered the black hole. All at once, everything stopped shaking and silence fell. "What happened?"   
  
The strength of the Doctor's love washed over her through the bond and Rose's eyes lit up an instant before his voice came over the comm unit. "Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS." He'd managed the impossible again.   
  
"Now, first things first - have you got a Rose Tyler on board?"   
  
"I'm here!" she blurted, forgetting that he could sense her through their bond better than she could him. "It's me! Oh, my God!" Giddy with relief and happiness, she laughed at her own silliness, covering her face with her hand. "Where are you?"   
  
"I'm just towing you home. Gravity-schmavity. My people practically invented blackholes. Well, in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain - can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Rose Tyler - I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?"   
  
He continued to talk to Zach about the exchange, but Rose wasn't listening. She could feel him, he was safe, and he had saved her again.   
  
"Ah!" he said, drawing her attention outward again. "Entering clear space - end of the line - mission closed."   
  
Rose smiled to herself, so happy and relieved and proud of him, all at the same time.   
  
A few minutes later she was running up the ramp of the TARDIS into his arms and he was sweeping her off of her feet. He swung her around and around as they laughed until, finally, she covered his mouth with hers.  _*Need you.*_    
  
 _*Yes.*_  He lowered her so that her feet touched the decking and then brought his hands up to her temples.   
  
"No! Not like that," she said, jerking back from him even as her hands reached for the top of his spacesuit. "I need you."   
  
"Rose - Rose, we can't. Remember?" He grabbed her hands to still them.   
  
"Don't care," she replied as she slipped from his grip and sought out the clasps and zippers necessary to take the suit off.   
  
"You will care."   
  
"That thing said I was gonna die in battle!"   
  
"No, no, no, don't you believe that," he said, placing his hands on either side of her face and boring into her eyes with his own. "It lied. It told you what it thought you needed to hear to fall apart. Don't let it win, not now that you're safe."   
  
"It doesn't change anything. I will die, eventually. And I don't want to die with us never having been together for real."   
  
"Rose, what we experience in the dream is real. It's just as real as what you're suggesting."   
  
"But it's not, is it? You never even take your bloody pants off!" She felt him recoil through the bond and realized that he'd deliberately let her feel the full force of his reaction to her words. It was like a splash of cold water on her growing anger.   
  
"Time Lords are different, we discussed that before we ever bonded. I am completely satisfied with our current sex life, the mental connection is all I need."   
  
"I need more. I'm gonna grow old and die in a snap of your fingers, Doctor, and the only way Humans can be immortal is through our children. I want that with you, for the time that I have left."   
  
"You should think about it more. Don't make this decision lightly."   
  
"And you should take me in your arms and kiss me senseless, get out of that daft spacesuit, and find us a bed."   
  
"You'll die eventually, regardless of the when or where. Are you so certain of this that you're willing to leave your child behind?"   
  
"Behind, yes. It happens all the time, parents dying. But I wouldn't be leaving him alone, not him or you."   
  
 _*I don't want you to regret this later.*_    
  
 _*I have never regretted a single thing we've done together.*_    
  
She felt his decision to move through the bond before he physically touched her. He kissed her, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth,  _*Rose.*_    
  
 _*My Doctor.*_    
  
Somehow they managed all of the snaps, clasps, and zippers of the spacesuit, and the Doctor let it fall to the ground as he stepped out of it. Rose laughed when she saw that he was wearing his pinstripes underneath.   
  
"What? I couldn't just leave it on Krop Tor. It's my favorite suit!"   
  
"Sometimes I think it's your only suit," she laughed as she quickly opened the buttons to his jacket. "Hrm. No dream state this time. It looks like I'll have to take this off of you piece by piece."   
  
The jacket fell to the floor behind him.   
  
He wrapped one arm around her waist and dragged her closer, "Rose."   
  
"Don't try to talk me out of it."   
  
"I'm not."   
  
He kissed her and then pulled her along with him down the TARDIS' corridors until they got to a door she didn't recognize. "This was big ears and leather's room," he explained, his hand on the handle. "A soldier's room, the room of a man who didn't think he was worthy of love. I hadn't yet gotten around to changing it when our dreams started connecting. Your room - the room we have shared these last few months - that's the one that speaks of the man I am now. But I wanted you to see this before we went any further."   
  
He turned the handle and pushed open the door, letting her walk in before him. Rose had to stifle a giggle at what she was seeing. The room they'd entered was a perfect replica of her bedroom. Everything down to the pictures on the dresser and the ever-present pile of clean clothes.   
  
"What?" he exclaimed as he came up short behind her.   
  
The lights flickered once, and through their bond Rose could hear the TARDIS laughing.   
  
She looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks girl." Then she looked back at him.   
  
He was smirking. "I shouldn't be surprised. The TARDIS made her opinion of our relationship perfectly clear from the beginning. You've been moved into the master suite, Rose."   
  
"She's a very perceptive girl," Rose agreed. "But we both knew that. So, what do I have to do?"   
  
He smiled broadly at her easy acceptance. "You stumbled onto the basics of it the night we bonded."   
  
"I remember. You pulled away from me, muted the bond."   
  
"That's right. The bond allows us to share our thoughts and feelings..."   
  
Rose carefully probed at the bond the same way she'd done that night.   
  
"...even across long distances --" He stopped short. "Rose?"   
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"Did you just...?"   
  
"Yeah. Okay?" She touched the bond again tentatively.   
  
"Yeah," he squeaked. "More than. Love Humans," he said breathlessly as he began ripping his clothes off. "Always jumping in with both feet. Brilliant, you are."   
  
Rose took off her jacket and pulled her shirt over her head, dropping them both on the floor behind her. He had already removed his waistcoat and was still fumbling with the buttons of his shirt when her bra joined the jacket and shirt. He finally managed the last button of the shirt when her jeans and knickers ended up in a puddle at her feet.   
  
"Let me help," she said when his hands moved to the top of his trousers.   
  
"Rose --" he warned.   
  
"No. The time for sparing me from whatever you're hiding in there has passed. If we're gonna do this, I need to know."   
  
He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and Rose put her hands in their place. With a flick she released the clasp of his trousers and let them fall to his feet. His pants rode low on his hips, exposing the bare skin below his navel where a thin line of hair existed in the dream. Having slept beside him for the last six weeks, she was familiar with the coolness of his body, but his temperature was a little elevated from what she considered his normal. She was certain it had everything to do with the hard bulge outlined beneath his pants that she was now faced with.   
  
He'd told her from the beginning that there were physical differences. But from what she could tell by cupping him gently through the thin material of his pants, the size was roughly the same as what she saw in the dream. However, she could feel things that definitely weren't. A minute later his pants lay atop the heap of his clothes on the floor and she understood why. He was unlike anything she had ever seen before.   
  
It tapered slightly towards the tip, which was separated from the rest of the shaft by four thin ridges, but otherwise was not a distinct "head" like on a human male. Just below the lowest ridge on both sides were two lines of tiny holes along the length of the shaft, with short, dark vein-like lines under the skin which splayed away from each hole. The bottom third of his shaft more closely resembled what she was accustomed to but his sack was smaller and closer to his body.   
  
"Rose." Then he said it again when she didn't answer him. "Physical throwbacks made sex between Time Lords and Ladies... unnecessarily complicated." He grabbed the tip of his penis and moved it to the right so he could show her the row of holes. "Shortly before I climax, I'll secrete a neurotoxin - there really isn't another word for it, I'm sorry - that will force you into the dreaming state. Then this," he moved her hand to the topmost ridge, "will flair out to fill you, plug you. It will last for several minutes after I climax and it will be... difficult to separate us during that time. I can't guarantee that it won't be painful for you, but I'll do what I can to mitigate it in the dream state."   
  
"You said you've never..."   
  
"That's right. Everything I know about the mechanics of it I learned when I was still a boy. Sex was the backwards way of procreating, practiced exclusively by lower beings and heretics. Anyone of consequence went to the Looms instead."   
  
"You told me it's not pleasurable for Time Lords."   
  
"That's right. But this isn't about me, Rose."   
  
"It is about you," she said indignantly. "It's as much about you as it is about me."   
  
"I won't derive any pleasure from the actual physical act, no. The sharing of our minds is very fulfilling, however, and I'm looking forward to seeing if your mind reacts differently to sex once your physical body is engaged. So, please don't worry that I'll get nothing out of this at all."   
  
"You almost make it sound like a science experiment."   
  
"I get a lot of enjoyment out of your pleasure, Rose."   
  
There was a dew drop forming from the small circular opening on his tip and Rose touched him tentatively, spreading the moisture over the head above his ridges, smiling broadly when he bobbed and jerked in response.   
  
She stood and backed towards the bed. "Okay. What are we waiting for?"   
  
He came forward to meet her, very deliberately keeping his hands neutrally by his sides. "This is where I remind you of what we share in the dreaming state and give you one last chance to change your mind about needing this to become physical."   
  
Rose focused inward and gently caressed a small section of their bond. The Doctor growled. "We're past that point, Rose."   
  
"Obviously not if you can still give coherent biology lessons and tell me you could walk away right now if I asked you to." She ran a mental finger along the bond again.   
  
He took an involuntary half step towards her before jerking to a stop. "Rose, you don't want me insensible. But if you keep doing that, that's exactly what you're going to get. I promise you, I am plenty aroused. But I'm not Human. Two hearts, remember? That means that my higher brain functions don't shut off just because an increased amount of blood has been diverted to my sex organs."   
  
"It did the first time. And the second."   
  
"Yes, Rose. The first time. I told you I'd never done this before."   
  
"Then what are you waiting for, Time Lord?"   
  
He moved then, all hesitation falling away as he cupped her face and pressed his naked body against hers. After one brief kiss, he lifted her to sit on the edge of the bed, her legs falling open automatically. Rose groaned at the feeling of his hardness pressing against her as he settled himself between them.   
  
But she didn't want him standing throughout their first time. "Come up here," she said, hating to separate herself from him so soon for even the brief time it would take for them to move to the middle of the bed.   
  
A moment later they were lying together in a way they had done so often in their dreams, him poised at her entrance. He hesitated and just when Rose was about to blast him with a reminder of her love for him, he grinned and she knew he was doing it on purpose.   
  
He inched inside of her and Rose was shocked to hear him let out a long, low groan. She shifted her hips slightly to accept him and he slipped a little further in. "Rassilon, Rose. You weren't this tight in the dream."   
  
"It's my dream. How was I supposed to know? Besides, my body hasn't been used in almost two years."   
  
"Yeah, but Rose. Friction."   
  
She could feel his astonishment through the bond as wave after wave of pleasure passed over him, and couldn't contain a giggle. "And the best is yet to come, yeah?"   
  
"It shouldn't be like this." He jerked forward, burying himself deeper inside of her.   
  
Rose moaned with the increased contact. "Doctor, when was the last time a Time Lord bonded with a Human?"   
  
Another thrust. He was almost completely inside of her now. "Never. It's never happened before us. Only a handful of marriages, but never a full bonding. The Human mind can't - shouldn't be able to handle it." He groaned when the tiniest rotation of her hips sent another wave of pleasure through his body.   
  
"Seems like you lot have been missing out. Now, shut up and make love to me."   
  
With one final thrust he completed their joining. Rose echoed his deep moan of satisfaction. He wrapped his tongue around the puckered bud of her nipple and she bucked hard against him. Then he began to move, the ridges on his shaft creating the most delicious friction against her walls. It was so good, and he was so... yes, that the build-up started immediately. A few minutes later, a well-placed thrust brought her over the edge.   
  
When she was able to open her eyes again, Rose felt the shift in his mind that her release had caused. His hands landed at her waist where they tightened just shy of being painful as the rhythm of his hips began to increase to an almost maddening pace. Rose screamed as she was vaulted to another orgasm so close on the heels of the last.   
  
He babbled something, but whatever he was saying, she was glad his meaning was clear because the TARDIS wasn't bothering to translate. She felt a prickling sensation up and down her inner walls. Rose gasped in a combination of shock and uncertainty, squirming beneath him in an unconscious effort to get away from the strangeness.   
  
"Nuh," he grunted, the word only partially formed, as his hands gripped her even tighter to hold her in place. And then the neurotoxin took effect and Rose found herself floating in the nothingness of space.   
  
A moment of disorientation overtook her. She'd expected to appear in the rose dream, with the Doctor still above her, obviously close to completion. But that hadn't happened. Rose shivered against the sudden loneliness.   
  
As she drifted, she became aware of the celestial bodies that surrounded her, content in their orbits and unaware of her existence. Somehow she knew which ones were inhabited, and found that when she focused on those planets could see tiny tendrils of timelines rising up by the millions from them. Time was passing and while she watched old timelines died out and new ones were formed.   
  
In addition to the planets, she passed stars, comets, asteroids, and moons, and then Rose could feel herself building up speed as a definite destination began to emerge. It was smaller than some of the other objects she passed, but the closer she came to it, she realized it was not small at all, its size roughly that of Earth. The star was brilliantly white and it pulsed and contracted, the surface tumultuous.   
  
She could feel the terrible heat of it, cooler by far than some of the other stars she had passed, but still hot enough to fry her in an instant. However, something protected her from combusting even though she was roughly the same distance away from it as the Earth from its moon.   
  
She had only just settled into a synchronous orbit when it contracted once, hard, then exploded around her. Rose threw her hands up in what she knew was a futile gesture, but the initial shock wave simply moved through her and she continued to float, protected from the violence of the explosion by the same unseen force that had protected her from its heat.   
  
It took a moment for her eyesight to return to normal, but when it finally did, Rose looked at the rocks and dust that floated in nearby space, still moving away from the center of the blast. The particles had finally dissipated when she felt a pair of strong arms encircle her from behind.   
  
He just held her for a long time, their naked bodies flush, his breath ragged against her neck as they spun slowly in weightlessness.   
  
"I'm going to need a few more minutes out there," he said finally, a hint of embarrassment in his voice.   
  
"How long has it been?"   
  
"Millions of years or just a few seconds. It's all relative."   
  
"Are you okay out there?"   
  
"I'm fine. Like I said, I need a minute."   
  
"Am - am I okay?"   
  
"Yes! Yes, of course. It's just that I'm still flared and I don't want to bring you out of the dream until I can disengage."   
  
"And that was..." she gestured where the star had been.   
  
"Yeah." He laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. I had hoped to be in control enough to put us in the rose dream."   
  
"It's okay. I would have liked you to be here, though; floating starkers through the universe is a little unnerving."   
  
He turned her in his arms to face him. "I was here with you, Rose. That white dwarf wasn't just a metaphor, it was me. Granted, I couldn't touch you or speak to you - honestly, I'm not even sure I could have done either of those things out there." His hand came up to brush her cheek. "But I never abandoned you."   
  
Tears prickled behind her eyes. "Will it be like that every time?"   
  
He thought for a moment. "I don't think so. This was a first for me on so many levels. I should be able to control it better in the future."   
  
"Okay." She yawned.   
  
The Doctor placed a small kiss near her temple then pushed her head down so that it was resting on his chest. "Sleep, Rose. When you wake we'll be together in our bed."   
  
* * *   
  
She was asleep in moments, his pink and yellow Human. Plenty of time had passed by now that he should be able to disengage from her body without disturbing her. Waking, he did exactly that then drew Rose out of the shared dream and allowed her to go back to sleep properly.   
  
His hand splayed across her abdomen, he ached to open his time sense to witness the creation of a new timeline which would occur at the fusing of his sperm to Rose's egg. But he didn't, deliberately not looking at what would become the brilliant boy who had visited him over the centuries. He didn't even think Rose knew what she'd said, standing in the console room, trying to convince him to bring their relationship to the physical level. 'I wouldn't be leaving  _him_  alone'. And in that moment the Doctor had known that she'd claimed his blond haired, brown eyed son as her own. That, more than any of her other words, had convinced him of the rightness of what she wanted. It was plainly obvious now why his son wouldn't be able to visit again: he didn't want to risk crossing his own timeline.   
  
She shifted against him and his arms tightened around her. Snuggling deeper into their bed, the Doctor settled in to wait for her to wake.


	5. Chapter 5

The viewing window above their bed was alternating between the Orion Nebula and the Pazuzu Cluster. An hour ago he'd gotten tired of looking at Raki Prime and asked the TARDIS for something different and those had been her answer. An hour before that it had been Procyon.  
  
He wasn't tired but maybe he should try to sleep anyway. It would make the time move faster. He'd already cataloged all of the maintenance he needed to do on the TARDIS and theorized a few minor calibrations which should increase the accuracy of their landings.  
  
All of this while Rose slept. She did that a lot, and while a part of him wanted to begrudge her the time it caused them to spend apart, he knew that he couldn't. Even now, with the smell of sex still permeating the room he wanted her to wake, but was content to just hold her. Especially now, he added, as his hand drifted back down to her abdomen for what was probably the millionth time since she'd fallen asleep.  
  
In fact, it would probably be easier to quantify the amount of time his hand had been away from that spot in the last three hours. It was the closest he'd gotten to the life that was forming inside Rose's womb. It was too soon for there to be actual  _life_ , he knew that, obviously - the average time from intercourse until fertilization was about ten hours - but he also knew that it would be nothing at all for him to discretely... no. He'd been over this. And over it.  
  
And over it.  
  
 _*Something else, please, old girl.*_  
  
Moons this time: Ceres, Teta, and Punarvasu. Ooh, Punarvasu, that was a place he'd never taken Rose.  
  
He wouldn't be taking her anywhere for a while. They would need to find a place to park the TARDIS soon, before the baby's time sense began to develop, and Rose would want that place to be near Jackie. His ninth self had been nearly terrified by the prospect of domesticity in general, and Jackie Tyler specifically, but she seemed to have accepted this version of him much more readily. Their relationship was now, if not good, certainly tolerable.  
  
And a good thing, too, considering how much his and Rose's relationship had changed since he wore leather. And since he was preparing to spend at least six of the next nine months in her company. At least he hoped it would only be nine months. Cross-species procreation was not always an exact science.  
  
Rose stirred in his arms, and he was thrilled to feel her rising to consciousness. His hand tightened against her abdomen for the last time before moving away. Finally Rose shifted and turned to face him, her eyes slowly opening.  
  
"Good morning."  
  
She stretched, cat-like, settling back into him a moment later. "Doesn't feel like morning. How long did I sleep?"  
  
"About three hours." He could have told her down to the millisecond, but she always appreciated abstract numbers better.  
  
She made a small noise that could have been amusement, her hand coming up to brush at the light smattering of hair on his chest. "That all?" Her hand moved lower, skimming down his stomach until she cupped his flaccid member. "I'm feeling very refreshed." With that he felt the first flickers of arousal as Rose stroked her side of the bond.  
  
He hadn't allowed himself to hope that she would be as insatiable physically as she had been in their dream state. Had, in fact, spent the last three hours, 16 minutes, and 40 seconds deliberately not thinking about his embarrassing performance during their first go and how she might react to it given a bit of time. But those thoughts of inadequacies were banished as he settled between Rose's thighs again.  
  
Some time later he collapsed beside her, crushing rose petals beneath his sweat-slicked body. The transition into the dream state had been seamless this time, not nearly as jolting for either of them. And Rose seemed to have adjusted to the physical differences without difficulty, barely flinching when his neurotoxin had fired.  
  
His eyes dropped to her hips where, he suspected, there would be bruising on her body, if not from the first time they'd had sex then certainly from this one. He'd learned to anticipate the whip crack of her telepathy when she climaxed, but it still left him single-mindedly pursuing his own release every time. Unfortunately, he was considerably stronger than Rose, meaning he had the potential to bruise whatever part of her body he happened to be holding when he did.  
  
She scooted closer to him, bonelessly throwing her arm across his waist. Automatically, the Doctor shifted to his side so he could curl his body around hers. His body temperature was already regulating itself again and Rose pressed tighter against him, allowing him to cool her heat. "Are you okay?"  
  
Rose hummed an approval. It was a soft, contented sound that appeased the more domestic parts of his mind, parts his ninth incarnation would have argued did not exist. She was happy, therefore, he was happy. He brushed his fingers lightly across her cheek, watching her already relaxed expression soften even further.  
  
They lay that way for a while, murmuring half-hearted words with no meaning to each other, until the Doctor decided it was time to bring them out of the dream.  
  
For the second time that morning Rose's eyes fluttered open. He knew he was grinning like an idiot, but couldn't help it.  
  
"You think you're so impressive," she said.  
  
"You forget, Rose Tyler, that I can see into your mind. You think I'm so impressive, too."  
  
"That's not fair."  
  
He leaned even closer to her, his breath hot on her ear. "I don't always need the bond to know what you're thinking, you know. 'Oh, God, yes!'" he mimicked, his voice low and as rich as dark chocolate. "'Doctor, you're amazing. Oh my God. I love you.'"  
  
Rose whimpered and he drew back so that he could see her face. She quickly turned away from him, though, but not before he caught a glimpse of her crestfallen expression. Belatedly it occurred to him what he'd said. The first time she'd heard him speak those words and it was because he'd been teasing her.  
  
It was a stupid mistake. Mentally he kicked himself for teasing her, but really it went deeper than that. Six weeks they'd been a couple, but his feelings for her had remained constant for nearly a year. It was the words that he kept getting hung up on. "Rose, I --"  
  
"So!" she said, swinging her feet to the edge of the bed and standing before he could even mount a protest. "Breakfast?"  
  
 _*Rose.*_  
  
"I'm thinking a full English. Doesn't that sound good?"  
  
He turned to watch her as she moved around the room.  _*Rose, please don't push me out.*_  
  
She threw on an oversized t-shirt and started for the bedroom door. Recognizing this as his last chance, he threw a string of Gallifreyan at her, breathing a sigh of relief when she stopped with her hand outstretched to open the door.  
  
"What was that, then?"  
  
 _Everything you are to me, including truths you don't even know yet_ , he thought. Rising from a reclining position, he knelt on the bed, heedless of his nakedness as the sheet fell away from his body. It was appropriate that he was naked before her, with those words between them stripping away yet another layer of the barriers he'd built over a lifetime. It was also a less than subtle reminder that he'd stayed with her after their physical intimacy, that he hadn't dressed and left her alone in their bed.  
  
"It means bonded mate," he said. Some of it did, at least, the rest they could discuss later. Much later, preferably when she wasn't glaring at him like that. "You're my bonded mate."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
 _*It means, Rose Tyler, that you hold a place in my life and in my hearts that has never been occupied before.*_  
  
"Yes, but Doctor --"  
  
He dropped the wall that normally contained his feelings for her, then watched her expression soften and the tension in her shoulders evaporate as she was bombarded with them. Jumping down from the bed he quickly crossed the room to her side.  
  
His hearts clinched when he saw that there were tears welling in her eyes. Why did he keep getting these things wrong? She'd cried after their bonding, now she cried after sex. He was rubbish at this. Women should come with manuals.  
  
Rose snorted. "So it's true then, blokes are the same all over the universe, even supposedly superior ones."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your walls are still down, Doctor," she said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I caught all of that one."  
  
"Oh. But that's good, right?"  
  
"Yes, that's good." She rose up onto her toes to kiss his cheek.  
  
"Rose --"  
  
She moved from his cheek to his lips, silencing him. "Every time you do that I can feel you trying to gather up the strength to say it. Yes," she added when his brow furrowed, "even when your walls are up. I don't want it if it's forced. The words aren't that important. And I mean that, I'm not just saying it to try to make you feel better. I  _know_. And I understand."  
  
She was telling the truth, he could feel her honesty, but still... "The words are important to you."  
  
"Yeah," she admitted. "But when you're ready. Okay? Not because you think I want to hear them."  
  
"Okay." Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close, keeping his walls down so that she could feel how deeply comforting having her there was. They stayed that way for several minutes, until Rose's stomach made its needs known with a hearty rumble.  
  
She giggled, embarrassed, and he rebuilt his walls as she pulled away from him. "So? Breakfast?"  
  
"Breakfast," he agreed. She would need the nourishment. And, he thought later, as he caught a tiny yawn she tried to hide while they moved around each other in the galley, he would have to start respecting her sleep cycles. Three or four hours here and there might be plenty for him, but with the impending drain on her body, she would need a minimum of eight hours every day.  
  
After breakfast they moved to the lounge where she was soon lulled to sleep by the heavy meal they'd shared and the few precious hours' rest she'd gotten the night before.  
  
Dressing in something more respectable than the t-shirt and pants he'd grabbed that morning, the Doctor entered the console room. It had been barely ten hours since they'd escaped Krop Tor, but it felt more like a lifetime. His ship welcomed him and sent a playful ribbing for what he'd been up to since getting her back, which he accepted gladly. The TARDIS was thrilled at the new development in his relationship with 'her' Wolf and excited by the prospect of a Time Tot running around.  
  
He checked a few regulatory circuits, verified that they were still spinning undisturbed in the Vortex, and was about to look at the monitor which displayed timeline anomalies when the TARDIS drew his attention, reminding him that his mate was asleep alone in the lounge. He soothed her concerns and reached for the monitor again. The screen darkened and he was told quite bluntly that his mate would appreciate his presence.  
  
Suspicious now, he checked on Rose through the bond to discover that she was sleeping soundly and had hardly stirred since he'd left her. Admonishing the TARDIS for interfering with what was, essentially, his job, he waited with thinly veiled patience for her to make the monitor functional again.  
  
As soon as it flared back to life he understood why the old girl had tried to divert his attention. An Elemental Shade had escaped from the Howling Halls and was on the loose in 1970's London. A living shadow, they were silent and deadly creatures, and this one had infiltrated his town. That was unacceptable.  
  
Using the TARDIS' scanners he narrowed down the shadow's location to a block of townhouses on Dunoon Road, the year 1970 exactly. He then landed and, with one more check to make sure that Rose was still sleeping soundly, stepped out of the TARDIS. It was early evening, a shadow's favorite hunting time, and a quick sweep with his sonic had him hurrying to the third townhouse.  
  
The sweep had told him there were two Humans inside, a woman and a young boy, unsuspecting prey for the shadow. Easing the door open as quietly as possible he slipped into the house. Then, sonic at the ready, he pinpointed the mother in the kitchen to his right and the boy upstairs.  
  
The shadow was elusive, however, and the time he would be able to move around the townhouse undetected was growing short. A noise from the kitchen drew his attention just as the sonic alerted him to the presence of the shadow.  
  
A shadow of a different kind darkened the room as a blonde in her early forties stepped into the living room.  
  
"Who are you?" she asked. "What's going on?"  
  
He gestured that she should stay behind him. "I'm tracking an intruder in your home. Just stay behind me."  
  
"There's an intruder in my home alright. And I'm calling the police right now."  
  
He moved to stop her, but the shadow moved at the same time. But talking to her had divided his attention and the shadow got there first. The woman collapsed, silently, an instant before he was able to level the sonic at the shadow and immobilize it.  
  
He dug in his pocket, pulling out a quantum vacuum housed in a perfect crystal sphere. A slight adjustment to the sonic sucked the shadow into the sphere where it could bounce around, trapped for eternity.  
  
He was too late to save the mother, though, and a glimpse at her petite blonde form lying on the carpet behind the sofa was enough to send him across the room to stare out the window blankly. He'd left Rose in the TARDIS and confronted the Elemental Shade alone, but it could have just as easily been her lying dead on the floor.  
  
He'd confronted his companions' mortality before; he had mourned Adric, had seen Sarah Jane years after she'd last traveled with him, her age evident in her face, had even regenerated to save Rose's life. But all of that had been before he'd admitted to himself and her how important she was to him.  
  
He'd taken her into so many dangerous situations with his usual devil-may-care attitude both before and after his regeneration. That was going to have to change. He wasn't going to do the same with the baby, and now that Rose was his wi--  
  
A motion to his left drew his attention, and the Doctor looked down at the boy he'd both saved and orphaned. An apology stuck in his throat, he could only stare at the small pyjama-clad figure drawing nearer. He stayed that way, frozen, until the townhouse door slowly began to open. Dashing between the boy and the door, the Doctor leveled his sonic at the intruder. A blonde head peeked cautiously in, "Doctor?"  
  
"Rose," he sighed.  
  
***  
  
Maybe it was the relief in his voice, or the bone-crushing hug he pulled her into as soon as she stepped into the townhouse, but something had happened, she knew that right away.  
  
"What happened?" she asked as he released her, but the answer was evident a moment later when a tiny, slightly panicked voice began calling for its mummy.  
  
The boy was no older than three or four and was crouching over his mother's body trying to shake her awake. Rose stepped in immediately, lifting the boy and carrying him to the other side of the room. "Hi there. My name's Rose, what's yours?"  
  
He sniffled. "Elton."  
  
"Elton. That's a great name. You see that man over there? He's the Doctor, and that's a great name, too. Do you know what he does, Elton?" She waited for the boy to shake his head. "He saves people."  
  
But the Doctor's expression was clearly readable, he hadn't saved everyone tonight and that weighed heavily on him.  
  
In the end she decided it might be better for Elton to 'find his own way' to the neighbor's, so with a small nudge, she sent him in that direction.  
  
Taking the Doctor's hand as soon as Elton was safe in the care of someone else, Rose led him back to the TARDIS.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been almost three weeks since their second encounter with Elton Pope, coincidentally only a few hours in their linear timeline after meeting him as a child. Seeing Elton as a relatively well-adjusted adult had lessened some of the Doctor's guilt over not being able to save his mother. He'd remembered them after a bit of prompting and the resulting conversation had been cathartic for both Elton and the Doctor. Since then, the Doctor had been calmer, more laid back, even frequently eschewing his customary Oxford and tie in favor of Henleys he left open at the neck.  
  
Today was one of those days. He was full of laughter and easy smiles when they left their bed. Rose, for her part, was unsettled from the first moment she stepped into the en suite that morning to discover that her monthly still hadn't come. She was late. It was only a few days, but late was  _late_  when your lover insisted there was no use taking any precautions.   
  
For each of those days she had convinced herself that she had simply miscalculated her cycle; it would be easy enough to do, being that they never kept to a strict 24-hour schedule, but there were only so many days you could tell yourself that before you had to accept the inevitable: she was pregnant.   
  
Rose watched herself in the mirror as her hand pressed against her flat stomach. A child. The Doctor's child. The memory of a boy in a 1953 London alley with shaggy blond hair and the Doctor's eyes was still very fresh in her mind. Suddenly, she was giddy and nauseous and nervous all at once. She looked up at her reflection and met her own eyes. She was going to have to tell him. How would he react? She cringed. How would her mum? They'd managed so far to not tell Jackie about how their relationship had changed, but this would be impossible to hide.  
  
A knock at the door pulled her away from her thoughts and she guiltily dropped her hand. "Rose? Are you going to be a while? I had this idea."   
  
"I'll be out in a mo'."   
  
She finished what she'd entered the loo to do then stepped back into the bedroom.   
  
"I have got a special treat for you," he promised as he pulled his jacket on over the Henley. He stopped and took a step closer to her, his brow furrowed with concern. "What's wrong?"   
  
She would tell him, she decided, after she had proof. There was no reason to get his hopes up for a false alarm; he'd already been through so much. She smiled reassuringly. "Nothing's wrong," she replied as she opened the dresser to pull out some clothes. "What's your big idea?"   
  
The 2012 Olympics were his big idea. But, as was frequently the way of things, they stumbled onto a mystery on the way. Since they'd become lovers - proper lovers - it seemed that he was drawn towards helping children. There'd been Elton Pope as both a child and a man, the twins on Pliht, the child-King of Bhadrapada, and now Chloe Webber and her neighbors.  
  
A few hours later, after questioning Chloe and discovering the Isolus, they were back in the TARDIS bickering about children. She was feeling him out, giving him the worst scenarios she could think of, and listening to his patient, understanding answers. Rose had never doubted that he'd be a fantastic father, she'd seen countless examples of his caring nature and his reaction to his son had been joyful and welcoming. Throughout the whole conversation the admission that she suspected she was pregnant was on the tip of her tongue until, "I was a dad once."  
  
Rose was stunned. He threw the words out so casually that they took her completely by surprise. He'd always been so closed off about his past; she knew about Gallifrey, of course, but there'd never been a hint that he'd had a family - been a father - before the Time War. She had to force herself not to cover her stomach protectively. His future was one thing. She could be a part of his future, but this past was not something she'd ever expected.  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
But he carried on, oblivious to her distress as he completed the device he was building.  
  
In hindsight, it was probably foolish for it to surprise her, he was over 900 years old, after all. He'd told her when he'd worn leather that he'd  _danced_ , but when this him had confessed to being a virgin she'd ignored the other part of it:  _in the Human sense_. Of course there would be other ways, superior ways like in vitro but a thousand times more, that didn't involve the very messy exchange of bodily fluids.   
  
Rose blushed. Not that he minded the exchange of bodily fluids part, in fact, they were both grateful that he'd been wrong about it not being pleasurable for him.   
  
And then they were stepping out into the street in search of the Isolus' ship, and the next thing Rose knew, the Doctor had disappeared. An emptiness she had forgotten blossomed in her mind. It had only been a matter of months that his thoughts had been a constant companion, but the void where he and their ship normally resided was almost debilitating. At first it took everything in her power simply to remain standing, the sheer loneliness of her own thoughts reverberating in her mind were almost enough to cause madness. He had been a telepath his whole life, yet lived like this for  _years_. It was a wonder he'd been sane at all when she'd met him.  
  
It took several minutes for Rose to remind herself how to function with only her own thoughts to act on, but once she did, there was only one thought remaining: the Isolus had done this.  
  
Rose ran down the street and banged on Trish's door. There, as suspected, she found a drawing of the Doctor and the TARDIS.   
  
"Leave me alone!" the Isolus protested when Rose angrily demanded it bring the Doctor back. "I love Chloe Webber."  
  
"I know," Rose replied, gentling her tone. "I know."  
  
Rose stood and looked down at the drawing of the Doctor once more.  _*I love you,*_  she pressed with her mind as forcefully as she could, but there was no answer. There was, as near as she could tell, no bond to speak of. "Doctor, if you can hear me, I'm gonna get you out of there. I'll find the pod."  
  
* * *  
  
The worry she'd felt when he had not returned to the Close with the children was finally starting to abate. Of course he would know that the torchbearer would not be able to complete his run and that someone else would need to take over, someone who understood about the Isolus and who could help the tiny alien on its way.   
  
"Cake?"  
  
He turned and laughed when he saw the little fairy cake.  
  
"Top banana!" He took a bite. "I can't stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat - masterpiece!"  
  
The Isolus was returned to its family, the Olumpic torch lit, the two of them together again. Unable to contain herself any longer, Rose threw herself into his arms. "I thought I'd lost you."  
  
"Nah! Not on a night like this! This is a night for lost things being found. Come on!"  
  
They walked down the road together, hand-in-hand, bantering about the Olympics until fireworks exploded over their heads.  
  
"You know what?" Rose said. "They keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will."  
  
He stopped and looked at her. "Never say never ever."  
  
"Nah. We'll always be okay, you and me." He looked up at the sky, but she could tell he was seeing beyond the fireworks. "Don't you reckon, Doctor?"  
  
"Something in the air," he said softly, not quite a reply. "Something coming."  
  
Rose looked up, hoping to get a glimpse of whatever had caught his eye. "What?"  
  
"A storm's approaching."  
  
She shivered and drew closer to him, the motion finally drawing his full attention back to her. He shook himself and the melancholy of the last few minutes seemed to fall away from him. "It's late," he said, wrapping his arm around her as he turned them back towards the TARDIS. "And you need your rest. There's nothing more to see tonight anyway. Tomorrow we can watch some of the events."  
  
Over the next three days they did, hopping back and forth over the two weeks of the Games to catch the highlights. Primarily they watched gymnastics (Rose's favorite), swimming, and many of the athletics events (he'd been joking about Papua New Guinea).  
  
After the closing ceremonies were concluded and the Olympic flag passed on to the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the Doctor and Rose returned to the TARDIS, thrilled and exhausted.  
  
"In the history of the Games, it's never surpassed."  
  
"You're kidding!"  
  
"No, I'm serious."  
  
"And we got to see it happen."  
  
"Yep." He smiled proudly.  
  
"I love you," she said.  
  
He hadn't tried replying to those words in kind since they'd first met Elton Pope, but he never failed to acknowledge her when she said them, often with a small show of affection or by simply speaking her name through the bond much as he had the night they'd bonded. This time it was a squeeze by the arm that was around her shoulders and a tiny kiss to her temple.  
  
"You should get some rest; you've had a busy couple of days. Nothing too strenuous for the next day or two, I think, Doctor's orders."  
  
Rose thought to argue, but her words were preempted by a huge yawn, which the Doctor took as affirmation of his recommendation. "Go to bed, Rose. I'll join you later."  
  
Nodding, Rose kissed him goodnight and then went to bed. To carry out his prescription, the Doctor kept them in the Vortex for the next two days, so it was almost a week later before the TARDIS was finally able to manufacture an excuse to get the Doctor to land and then leave the ship long enough for Rose to run a simple pregnancy test.   
  
She rummaged through the infirmary for several minutes until the ship had pity on her and helped her to find the sole 21st century pregnancy test aboard. Despite the fact that the average origin of the medical equipment in the TARDIS infirmary was some three thousand years in Rose's future, she couldn't bring herself to trust any of it.  
  
Rose looked down at the result again: positive. It had been five weeks since the first time they had come together physically and she had suspected for most of that time that the Doctor's assessment of their "compatibility" had been correct. She was pregnant.   
  
"You have to let me tell him," she said to the empty air, knowing that the TARDIS could hear her.   
  
The ship's ever-present hum changed pitch and Rose knew that the old girl would honor her wishes.


	7. Chapter 7

_"This is the story of how I died."_  
  
He landed on a remote, uncivilized planet with a promise of, "You're not going to want to miss this."   
  
Rose grumbled because it was still morning and she'd experienced her first bout of morning sickness only a few hours earlier. She'd been thankful at the time that the Doctor had left their bed before she woke and therefore was not listening to her retch from their bedroom. But even though she would rather be curled up on the sofa in the library with a cuppa, she allowed him to drag her out of the TARDIS.   
  
The landscape was rocky with spires reaching up into the sky. It was cool, the sun just setting. "Are those stingrays?" she asked, pointed at a group of them flying off into the sunset.  
  
"Actually," he replied, "they're Thihril, but stingray is pretty close."   
  
"What are they doing?"   
  
"Migrating."   
  
They stood with no more than a foot of separation between them, watching the Thihril swooping lazily across the sky and Rose allowed herself to relax. They'd done so much together, all of it thrilling, most of it dangerous. A baby would change that and a part of her worried how the Doctor would react to several years of a more sedate life.   
  
"How long are you gonna stay with me?"  
  
Rose looked over at the alien she had shared the last two years of her life with. "Forever."  
  
As a lazy smile worked its way across his face, Rose knew they'd be okay.   
  
Several hours later, as she hammered against a wall on the wrong side of the void, Rose cried bitter tears.   
  
"Take me back."  
  
Dimly she heard Pete in the background. "It's stopped working. He did it. He closed the breach."  
  
"No."  
  
She straightened, placing her hand and ear against the wall. There was something just there on the other side, something familiar and warm and comforting, yet aching and raw, echoing her own emotions clearly.  _*Please, please, Doctor. Fix this. Do something brilliant.*_  
  
But there was no response. It was different from when he'd been trapped in Chloe Webber's drawing. She could still feel that their bond was viable, but it was almost... severed, tendril-like ends searching in vain for the other half of the connection.   
  
Defeated, she lowered her hand from the wall.   
  
"C'mon, Rose, Pete is takin' everyone downstairs. We should go with them."   
  
"'m not leaving, Mum." Rose turned and pressed her back against the wall. "He's going to come for me and I need to be here."   
  
"He can find you just as easily downstairs as he could up here, love."   
  
"I said I'm not leaving, Mum," she barked, her eyes sliding to the other occupants of the room. She met Mickey's gaze. "Five and a half hours."   
  
Mickey nodded in understanding and moved forward to take Jackie's arm. "C'mon, Jackie. She'll be fine up here."   
  
"Five and a half hours? Rose? What's that mean, five and a half hours?"   
  
"That's how long I'm supposed to wait. For him." She slid down the wall and sat, settling in for the long wait.   
  
Her mum crouched down beside her. "Oh, sweethear'," she said gently, "you heard him: we're sealed off. Even if he wanted to he can't come here."   
  
"I'm telling you, Mum, he'll come for me." Deliberately, she moved her hand to her abdomen. "He'll come for us."   
  
Jackie hissed. "You're pregnant?"   
  
Rose nodded. "Surprise," she said weakly, her eyes filling with tears. "I was going to tell you, but then the ghosts and, well," she gestured at the room around them, a sob escaping her.   
  
"Oh, my girl." Jackie threw her arms around Rose as she broke down.   
  
After a while, they became aware of the nervous shuffling of feet. Rose pulled away from her mother and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Mum, you go downstairs with Pete an' Mickey. I'll be fine here."   
  
"I'm not leavin' you."   
  
"I'll be alright."   
  
Jackie sat down beside Rose. "Don't think you can out-stubborn me, Rose Tyler, I taught you everything you know."   
  
Rose leaned over and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "Thanks, Mum."   
  
"You two go on," Jackie waived dismissively at the men. "We'll be down in about five hours."   
  
There was the expected grumbling, but eventually Pete and Mickey left the two Tyler women alone.   
  
"So," Jackie said deceptively casually, "I thought you and Himself weren't like that."   
  
"Mum, no lectures, please."   
  
"I'm not lecturing, I'm concerned."   
  
Rose took a deep breath. "It wasn't like that, Mum. He needs me."   
  
"Obviously."   
  
"Mum!"   
  
"Sorry! Habit. How far along are you?"   
  
"Right at six weeks."   
  
"I can't help but notice you're not wearing a ring."   
  
"Not every culture in the universe exchanges rings, Mum." Rose sat up and stripped off her hoodie, then raised the sleeve of her shirt and placed her thumb on the invisible edge of the tattoo.   
  
Jackie gasped as the gentle swirls of the tattoo began to appear against Rose's skin. "What is that?"   
  
"It's our engagement, Mum. Permanently written on my skin for all to see. It's not sordid or a passing fancy for him. He - there aren't words for how he feels about me."   
  
"Oh, honey, anyone who looks at that daft alien knows how he feels about you."   
  
* * *   
  
Pete had insisted that Jackie and Rose join him at his mansion. Jackie took to the posh lifestyle like a fish to water, but Rose couldn't find any enthusiasm for anything. She had no responsibilities, no job to go to, and only moved around every day because she knew she had to. The imperative to take care of herself, if only for the sake of the baby, was still strong.   
  
The fact that she was going through the motions was a comfort to her mum and Pete, who were struggling through the steps of their own unusual relationship. Despite their differences, Rose could see that they were growing closer day by day and she was happy for them. In fact, they had progressed to the point where Pete frequently insisted Rose call him 'Dad'. She saw through that as well; it was a minor effort to involve her in this world, something they could do without making it seem like they were pushing.  
  
It had been two weeks since Canary Wharf and every single day she had waited in vain for the familiar sound of the TARDIS materializing.  
  
_*Rose.*_  
  
Rose opened her eyes and sat straight up in bed. She threw on a dressing gown and hurried downstairs, where she told her mum, Pete, and Mickey what was happening as the voice repeated in her head like sonar. Anyone else would have thought she was mad, but those three believed her. So, they packed Pete's old Jeep and followed the voice for hundreds and hundreds of miles until they reached a deserted, bleak beach.  
  
And then they weren't so alone as the Doctor appeared out of thin air.  
  
Rose turned to him. "Where are you?"  
  
"Inside the TARDIS." He sounded so distant. "There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection, I'm in orbit around a super nova."  
  
"You look like a ghost."  
  
"Hold on." He took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and fiddled with the settings then pointed it at something. It must have worked because he became less ghost-like.  
  
Unable to stop herself, Rose moved forward, her hand already outstretched to touch his face. "Can I t--"  
  
He shook his head. "I'm still just an image. No touch."  
  
"Can't you come through properly?"  
  
"Not yet, but I'm working on something. It's a delicate operation, punching holes between universes, but --"   
  
"I'm pregnant," she blurted, then laughed nervously. "There, I said it. Couldn't figure out how to tell you and then with everything that happened..."   
  
"Oh, Rose --"   
  
"Don't start. Wouldn't have changed anything. I knew what I was doing. And you know how I feel about you making decisions for me." He looked at something and Rose got the distinct impression they were running out of time.   
  
"We'll talk about this later," he said, turning back to her. "But I'm going to fix this. Five and a half hours, Rose. You know the rule. Wait for five and a half hours."   
  
She didn't tell him that she'd already given him two weeks, because in the end it wouldn't matter how long it took him. "I'd wait forever, you know that." She took a deep shuttering breath. The comfort of knowing he would do everything in his considerable power to get her back calmed her. "How long have we got left?"   
  
"Just a few more seconds."   
  
"I - I love you."  
  
"Rose Tyler -- "


End file.
